U.S. patent number 4,156,707 [Application Number 05/875,465] was granted by the patent office on 1979-05-29 for method for producing multicolored, variegated soap.
This patent grant is currently assigned to Colgate-Palmolive Company. Invention is credited to David P. Joshi.
United States Patent |
4,156,707 |
Joshi |
May 29, 1979 |
Method for producing multicolored, variegated soap
Abstract
The invention provides a method for producing multi-colored
soap, either in chip or bar form including the steps of preparing a
soap slurry, solidifying the soap slurry, reducing the solidified
soap to particulate form, spraying the solidified soap with a
liquid coloring agent and drying the colored particulate soap. The
dried particulate soap can be further processed by plodding to form
variegated bars or used as soap chips, pellets or ribbons.
Inventors: |
Joshi; David P. (Piscataway,
NJ) |
Assignee: |
Colgate-Palmolive Company (New
York, NY)
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Family
ID: |
24483002 |
Appl.
No.: |
05/875,465 |
Filed: |
February 6, 1978 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
Issue Date |
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619716 |
Oct 6, 1975 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
510/146; 264/101;
264/148; 264/75; 510/440 |
Current CPC
Class: |
C11D
13/08 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
C11D
13/08 (20060101); C11D 13/00 (20060101); C11D
013/08 (); C11D 013/18 (); C11D 013/22 (); C11D
013/26 () |
Field of
Search: |
;252/90,92,108,134,367,368,369,370,371
;264/73,74,75,101,109,118,138,148 ;425/131.1 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Foreign Patent Documents
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139352 |
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Nov 1950 |
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AU |
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3167 OF |
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1862 |
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GB |
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20916 OF |
|
1907 |
|
GB |
|
380820 |
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Sep 1932 |
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GB |
|
Primary Examiner: Pitlick; Harris A.
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Sylvester; Herbert S. Grill; Murray
M. Stemwedel; John A.
Parent Case Text
RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application is a Continuation-In-Part of Ser. No. 619,716
filed Oct. 6, 1975 and now abandoned.
Claims
I claim:
1. A method for preparing multi-colored, variegated soap bars,
comprising, preparing an aqueous soap slurry containing at least
about 30 percent water by weight, solidifying said slurry, reducing
said solidified slurry to particulate form, applying a liquid
coloring agent to the solidified slurry either prior or subsequent
to said reducing step drying said particulate soap subsequent to
said applying step to a water content from about 2 to 12 percent by
weight, conveying said dried particulate soap to a plodder,
plodding said particulate soap subsequent to said drying step, said
plodding step including mixing said particulate soap to produce a
variegated soap mass, extruding said variegated soap mass in the
form of a continuous billet and subdividing said billet into
bars.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein said plodder includes a pair of
barrels, each barrel containing a screw and being separated by a
vacuum chamber.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein said solidified slurry is sprayed
with an aqueous solution of coloring agent.
4. The method of claim 3 wherein said aqueous solution of coloring
agent is supplied in an amount to result in a dried colored soap
containing from about 0.005 to about 1 percent by weight coloring
material.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein said applying step is subsequent
to said reducing step.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to soap making. More specifically,
the invention provides a method for the production of variegated
soap chips and/or bars. The term "soap" is used generically herein
to define a cleansing agent of either the natural or synthetic type
including anionic, cationic and nonionic detergents such as
ethoxylated alcohol sulfates and olefin sulfonates as well as
saponified fatty acid soaps and combinations of the foregoing
materials.
The particulate soap produced by the new method is esthetically
attractive and can have a whitish background with colored streaks
such as green and blue or the background can be colored and the
streaks chosen to contrast with the background color. Additionally,
and in accordance with a specific aspect of the invention, the
variegated particulate soap produced by the new method can be
further processed in a conventional double barrel vacuum soap
plodder to produce an extruded and variegated soap billet which can
be cut and pressed into bar form. As used herein the term
"particulate soap" or "particulate form" means either chips,
ribbons, pellets etc. of the relevant material.
A primary advantage of the new method is to produce variegated soap
bars using a conventional double barrel vacuum plodder apparatus. A
still further advantage of the invention is to produce esthetically
atrractive variegated particulate soap for laundry use.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The foregoing and other advantages are achieved by the method of
the invention which includes the following steps: (All percentages
are by weight unless otherwise specified), preparing an aqueous
soap slurry, solidifying said slurry, applying a coloring agent to
said solidified slurry, reducing said solidified slurry to
particulate form and drying said particulate soap, said drying step
being subsequent to said applying step. The soap slurry can include
additives such as perfume, coloring agents emolients, bacteriostats
in accordance with conventional soap making practice and contains
from about 20% to about 40% water, preferably at least 30% (kettle
soap). The particulate form of the soap can be chips, pellets or
ribbons. The particulate soap is dried to a water content of from
about 2 to about 12% by weight in a conventional drying
apparatus.
According to the invention, the coloring agent can be applied to
the solidified soap either prior or subsequent to the step of
reducing the solidified soap to particulate form. However, in
either case the coloring agent is added to the solidified soap
while it is a "wet" state i.e., while it has a water content of
about 20% to 40% by weight and prior to the step of drying the wet
soap to a water content of from about 2% to about 12% by
weight.
More specifically, and in accordance with a preferred aspect of the
invention, the new method includes preparing a soap slurry;
supplying the soap slurry to the nip of a pair of rollers;
solidifying a film of soap slurry on the surface of one of the
rollers; applying a liquid coloring agent to the solidified film or
soap; removing the solidified film from the roller and
simultaneously with the removing step subdividing the solidified
film to particulate form, conveying the particulate soap to a
drying apparatus; and drying the particulate soap to a water
content of from about 2% to about 12% by weight.
If it is desired to produce multi-colored variegated soap bars as
the final product of the invention the following additional method
steps are performed subsequent to the production of dried (2-12%
water) variegated particulate soap to a plodder, plodding the
particulate soap, said plodding step mixing the particulate soap to
produce a variegated soap mass, extruding the variegated soap mass
in the form of a continuous billet and subdividing said billet into
bars.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING
FIG. 1 is a schematic showing the steps of the new method.
FIG. 2 is a schematic of a portion of the new method showing an
alternate embodiment.
The invention will be described in further detail with reference to
the accompanying drawing.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
Referring to the drawing, a soap slurry is prepared in a blending
apparatus (crutcher) 10 by mixing ingredients such as saponified
fatty acids, water, perfume, bacteriostats, emollients, builders,
etc. The soap slurry typically contains from about 30 to about 35%
by weight of water although the water content of the slurry in the
crutcher can vary from about 20 to about 45% by weight. The slurry
is then solidified by any known method, preferably using a pair of
chilled rollers. The slurry 11 is conveyed and supplied to the
horizontal nip 12 formed by a pair of rollers, 13 and 14.
The uppermost roller 13 is heated to an elevated temperature,
usually above about 150.degree. F. preferably from about
200.degree. F. to about 210.degree. F. The heating can be
accomplished by circulating hot water through a hollow roller. The
lowermost roller 14 is cooled or chilled to a reduced temperature,
usually below 90.degree. F. and preferably between about 40.degree.
F. and about 60.degree. F.
The soap slurry exits from the nip 12 as a solidified film 15 on
the surface of the chilled roller 14. According to one aspect of
the invention, a liquid coloring agent 16 such as an aqueous or
non-aqueous solution or dispersion of a dye or pigment of desired
color is either dripped or sprayed onto the soap film 15, by means
of spray nozzle 17 to produce a streaked soap film 18. Typically
spray nozzle 17 includes a plurality of manifolded sprayers
disposed along the horizontal length of chilled roller 14. The
streaked soap film 18 is then conveyed downstream of the horizontal
nip 12 where knife blade 21 is disposed and functions to scrape the
variegated soap film 18 off the surface of roller 14 and to
simultaneously break the variegated film 18 into particulate form
22. The particulate soap 22 falls onto a conveyor 23 that includes
a perforated screen belt 24. The belt 24 carries the particulate
soap through a tunnel dryer 25 wherein hot air is blown through the
belt 24 and around the soap to evaporate water. Preferably the
dried particulate soap 22a leaving the tunnel dryer 25 has a water
content from about 2% to about 12% by weight.
Alternatively and as shown in FIG. 2, the coloring agent 16 can be
sprayed or dripped onto the solidified soap after particulate soap
22 is formed such as on conveyor belt 24 while being transported to
the tunnel dryer 25.
According to the invention, the dried and variegated particulate
soap can be packaged and sold as an esthetically attractive laundry
product or as an additive to spray dried laundry powders or they
can be processed further into bar form. In accordance with this
latter aspect of the invention, the particulate soap 22a can be fed
to the inlet 26 of a conventional double barrel vacuum plodder. The
soap is mixed and refined in the upper barrel 27 of the plodder by
plodder screw 28 and extruded in the form of strands or pellets
into vacuum chamber 29 wherein entrapped air is removed. The soap,
now in the form of a variegated soap mass, is fed into the lower
barrel 30 of the plodder wherein plodder screw 31 further refines
the soap mass. The refined soap mass is then extruded in the form
of a continuous variegated billet 32 which can be cut into
individual variegated bars 33 by cutter 34. The bars can then be
shaped, stamped wrapped for distribution.
The variegated soap bars produced according to the invention have
distinct and esthetically pleasing variegations. Since the coloring
agent was added to the solidified soap material while it was in a
wet state i.e., before the tunnel dryer, the coloring agent is
"locked" into the soap and does not spread through the soap mass
during plodding to produce indistinct variegations or background
color, which might happen if the coloring agent was applied to the
soap after the tunnel dryer i.e., when the soap was in a dry state.
A further advantage of the method of the invention is to avoid
non-uniformity of moisture in the final bar, thereby reducing
cracking which is a common problem when a liquid coloring agent is
added to the dried soap as in prior art variegating methods.
The invention can be further illustrated by the following
example:
A white soap slurry having the following composition is prepared in
a conventional mixing apparatus:
______________________________________ INGREDIENT AMOUNT (WEIGHT %)
______________________________________ 20% coco/80 Tallow
saponified soap 80% alfa olefin sulfonate 18% Titanium dioxide 1%
Preservatives, dye 1% 100%
______________________________________
The slurry is fed to the nip 12 which is defined by hot roll 13
operating at a surface temperature of 205.degree. F. and chilled
roll 14 operating at a surface temperature of 50.degree. F. The
soap slurry solidifies on the surface of the chilled roll 14 to
form film 15.
A coloring agent comprising by weight, an aqueous solution of 18%
coloring material such as FD & C Blue No. 2, 2%, sodium carboxy
methyl cellulose (CMC) and 80% water, is sprayed onto the film 15
by nozzle 17 in an amount of 1 gram per 100 grams of soap (1% by
weight). The amount of coloring agent can be varied from about 0.1
to about 5% by weight of the colored soap prior to drying,
depending upon the effect desired and the concentration of coloring
material in the coloring agent. The coloring material forms random
streaks on the film 15 and because of the high moisture content
i.e., typically about 30%, of the film, the aqueous based colored
solution is readily absorbed by the soap material. The final
concentration of coloring material in the dried soap can be from
about 0.005 to about 1% by weight.
Although the coloring agent typically includes water and a dye or
pigment it is within the scope of the invention to incorporate
perfumes, bacteriostats and other ingredients into the coloring
agent, or to use other vehicles such as hot waxes, liquid nonionic
detergents etc.
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